RESUMO
Careful consideration must be given to the efficacy of treatment for elderly patients with advanced gastric cancer. Thirty-two elderly patients, 75 years of age or older with gastric cancer, were treated in Tokyo Metropolitan Komagome Hospital,Department of Chemotherapy, between January, 1993 to December, 2002. We analyzed the data of these patients retrospectively. The male/female ratio was 13:3, and 90.6% of the patients developed complications. Some 29 patients were treated with 5-FU regimen. The response rate was 17.2%, median survival time was 201 days, and 5 PR pts had 421 days' survival time. Patients with good PS had long survival times. A comparative study was conducted between 15 cases treated with cisplatin (CDDP) regimen and 14 cases without CDDP. Among them, 13 pts were given a low dose and 16 pts a full dose of chemotherapy (5-FU+/-CDDP). No differences were found between the two groups in overall survival time. No patients showed a severe adverse effect and some exhibited improvement by the chemotherapy. Therefore, the choice of chemotherapy for an elderly gastric cancer patient mostly depends on the patient' s general condition. Elderly patients can develop many complications, so the organ function test should be carefully evaluated. Development of an oral anticancer drug for gastric cancer is in progress and promises to show good results in the near future. Chemotherapy appears able to preserve good "Quality of Life" and will play an important role in the treatment of gastric cancer in elderly patients.
Assuntos
Adenocarcinoma/tratamento farmacológico , Protocolos de Quimioterapia Combinada Antineoplásica/uso terapêutico , Neoplasias Gástricas/tratamento farmacológico , Adenocarcinoma/complicações , Adenocarcinoma/mortalidade , Idoso , Idoso de 80 Anos ou mais , Cisplatino/administração & dosagem , Esquema de Medicação , Feminino , Fluoruracila/administração & dosagem , Humanos , Hipertensão/complicações , Leucovorina/administração & dosagem , Masculino , Metotrexato/administração & dosagem , Qualidade de Vida , Estudos Retrospectivos , Neoplasias Gástricas/complicações , Neoplasias Gástricas/mortalidade , Taxa de SobrevidaRESUMO
Recently, cancer treatment has been shift from inpatient chemotherapy to outpatient chemotherapy, because of various medical circumstances. In chemotherapy of gastric cancer, outpatient chemotherapy was not spread in the last decade, because the chemotherapy protocol of gastric cancer was not fit for outpatient chemotherapy. But the development of new drugs as TS-1 make outpatient chemotherapy more frequent. So home care of patients has been important for management of gastric cancer. Various symptoms due to obstruction at primary lesion or other lesion prevent patients from living at home in gastric cancer. But recently, technical development and spread of home parenteral nutrition make a possible home care of patients with gastric cancer. It is necessary to make a system that supports patient life at home.
